How to know whether your cyber policy is just covering computers or actually protecting your company. Does your policy have a BYOD clause?
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, more employers in all sectors have implemented or expanded remote working with many employees using home computers and personal devices for business, including to their employer’s systems and data bases.
In addition to practicing sound risk management to address the expanded cyber exposures associated with remote working arrangements, employers should double-check their cyber-insurance policies to determine whether and how they might respond in the event of a cyber-attack launched through an employee’s home computer.
BYOD clause has broad definition of computer system. Some cyber-insurance policies have restrictive definitions with respect to an insured’s computer systems; meanwhile, others, such as Argo’s Cyber Sphere policy have broader definitions that include so-called “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) clauses.
The BYOD clause specifically is designed to have the insurance policy respond against cyber-attacks launched through employee home computers and other personal devices used on behalf of the insured entity. The BYOD clause in Argo’s Cyber Sphere policy reads as follows:
“Computer System means … portable computing and communication devices of an employee of an Insured that are used in the performance of services for or on behalf of the Insured Entity when compliant with the Insured Entity’s policy for personal portable computing and communication device use, if such policy exists ….”
While many other cyber insurance policies do contain some language that offers protection for “… hardware, software and components … linked together through a network of devices accessible through the Internet or the Insured Entity’s intranet ….,” they do not appear to explicitly provide coverage for the use of home computers by employees working remotely.
Besides providing a BYOD clause with its broad definition of computer systems, Argo’s Cyber Sphere includes the Paladin Shield platform which offers an extensive array of risk management solutions to protect against a wide range of the most serious potential cyber-threats.
Paladin Shield also facilitates a safer remote work environment by enabling employers using the platform to extend many of its enterprise protections to the home computers of their employees.
Altogether, the various protections provided by the Paladin Shield reduce an employer’s cyber-exposures and improve its risk profile, enabling Argo to evaluate and underwrite individual risks with greater confidence and offer coverage at affordable rates.
